Post Saving The World
by ALMOSTfamous94
Summary: The Flock has saved the world and is now trying to live the lives they never got to when they were on a mission. Max is turning 20 soon and begins to realize that she misses the excitement that often came with their dangerous old lives.


**Maximum Ride Fan Fiction**

Iggy entered the room with Ella close by, each of them with several cookie trays in hand. She guided him to the couch beside Dylan and Maya, who were sitting disturbingly close as they watched Fang and I clean up after Gazzy's latest concoction. We could all hear Total and Akila playing outside with the puppies. Fang neared me as I picked up the last pillow from the ground. He put his arm around my waist, took the pillow from me, and threw it onto the couch; taking my hand and leading me to the other end of the house where he proceeded to lean me against a wall and taunt me with one of his signature Fang grins.

"You've done enough cleaning today," he decided. But before I could experience the heart racing feeling that is kissing Fang, chaos broke out in the living room. I pushed Fang out of my way with full intentions to start kicking ass and taking names, only to realize he had somehow built up some strength against me. He pushed me back into the crevasse of the wall and looked deep into my eyes in a very comforting yet breathtaking matter.

"You saved the world already, Max. Nothing else can hurt us now."

"II guess I haven't gotten used to peace and quiet yet. It's rather unnatural, especially with Angel..." I stopped, beginning to reminisce about my golden haired Angel. "She was only eight and they..."

"I know," he interrupted me, bringing me closer into his warm embrace. "She did it for you, you know. In the end, it was always about you. She loved you."

"I raised her. She damned-well better have loved me."

"There's the Max I fell in love with," he kissed me. "No need to get upset over what's in the past. Let's focus on the future. I mean, Iggy is talking about proposing to Ella. We have bigger problems," he laughed.

"You weren't supposed to tell her!" Gazzy appeared as if out of nowhere. He'd recently discovered the power of eavesdropping while he practices mastering the art of telepathy. "She's going to tell Ella!"

"No I'm not. However, someone should talk some sense into Iggy."

But before anyone could offer, a shriek came from the living room, where all the day's entertainment seemed to be happening. I sighed, accepting the fact that I wasn't going to be getting much alone time with Fang, and stomped into the room with my hands on my hips.

"What the hell is going on in here?" I said as I observed the scene.

Iggy was down on one knee and Ella was standing in front of him with one hand over her mouth, almost shaking with excitement.

"It's just that, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," Iggy joked.

Ella blushed, "you can't even see me," happy tears collected in her eyes.

Iggy stood up and gently ran his fingers over her face. "Trust me," he said, "you're beautiful."

"Oh no..." I muttered, preparing to clear my throat, but Fang squeezed my hand as a sign to keep my opinion to myself.

I stood silently, smiling, thinking of where the past years of my life had gone. According to my chosen birthday, I'll be turning twenty in only a few weeks. But that's the least of my worries. I have something like ten people living under one roof. I don't even keep count anymore. I'm accustomed to being the leader of the Flock. I'm used to being the strong one. Especially since Angel's passing. You see, Angel was captured by some people who convinced her she was the most superior of any other genetically modified children. I mean, she totally hit the genetic jackpot, having had the most abilities out of any of us. But she was only an eight year old girl (bird-girl, yes, but still a child) when they sent her out on a life threatening mission to attack my biological mother. We all came to the rescue and I, obviously, was the one trying to talk Angel down from her own insanity. But it just wasn't good enough. Her last words often repeated themselves in my head.

"You," she gasped, "will do great things, Maximum Ride."

She had never called me that before. It was almost as if her mind had been taken over by someone else. But no matter the reason, those were her final words before she died in my arms, on the beach where I'd momentarily lost my sanity years before. Sure, I saved the world from human destruction only moments later, blah blah blah, but I never realized how boring life would be without a mission. We used to dream of the day we would be able to live normal lives, and I seem to be the only one who's disappointed.

I'm starting to realize how easy it is to fall in love with someone you spend all your time with. Iggy and Ella didn't exactly take their time. Dylan and Maya surprised us, but they turned out to be kind of perfect for each other once they started to move away from their "destined lives" and all that jazz. Fang and I had to save the world and share the death of a family member before we could be anything. Nudge is too much of a fashion goddess to make time for romance, and Gazzy is too young for romance still, thank goodness. Everyone around me is happily falling in love and all I can think about is how boring my life seems to be without anyone tracking em down and trying to kill me. We're less of a team now and more of a family. The abilities we used to use for fighting evil are now used for selfish laziness. What's become of us? We should be making the most of every moment we're alive, since we never figured out the whole expiry date thing. But instead, we're living in an old abandoned farm house, surrounded by beautiful land that could use a little more caring for, I do admit. Partially due to the three scottie-malamute puppies learning to fly, and partially due to Gazzy's latest explosive disaster. Maybe I should start cleaning up the field. It would give me something to do, something to keep my mind occupied until some new adventure introduces itself.

Cutting off my train of thought, Fang took my hand and snuck me out of the room with stealth. And by that I mean we basically just walked away from the attention bubble that surrounded Iggy and Ella. I really should have stayed and congratulated my half-sister, not to mention Iggy who's been basically a member of my broken-family for as long as I can remember. But something in Fang's eyes called me out the back door only two steps behind him. We walked into the sun where he proceeded to drop my hand and take a running start before he leaped into the air. I followed, meeting him at 10,000 ft in the air where he'd stopped to hover. He guided me in front of him, looking at me in a way that made me melt.

"So, I hear you think life's boring lately," he mocked. I opened my mouth to question him, but then it hit me, and before I could answer my own question, he did it for me. "Gazzy tapped into your head for a bit and told me you're unhappy."

"It's not that I'm unhappy. It's just..." I thought for a moment "We saved the world. That's pretty intense. But, like, now what? What do we do from here? We spent our whole lives wishing we could be normal, and now that we have the chance, we don't know how. Especially not me. I can't adjust to this."

"Sure you can. You doubt yourself too much. You don't give yourself any credit, Max. You're amazing! You lead us all to save the world. Without you we couldn't have achieved any of this!" His hand was now on my cheek, and it was comforting.

"I don't know what to do with my life anymore. I can't figure out what to do with myself," I sighed, averting my gaze to the ground below.

"You can do all the things we were never able to do when we were busy saving the world. You can sleep in! You can shower every day! You can do everything you've ever dreamed of doing, all you have to do is ask."

"Ask?"

"Well, for starters, let's do this more often. Just you and me, alone, talking, hovering," out forearms were aligned as we held onto each other, slowly spiraling downward. We landed, and he pushed me gently, just far away enough to look me in the eyes, smile one of his signature Fang smiles, and kiss me.

"And from there, we'll make all our dreams come true. Together."

I blushed, wanting to say something back but not willing to lose precious making-out-with-Fang time. I buried my face in his chest, smelling him. He didn't smell like Fang anymore. None of us smelled the same. We were all too clean.

My perfect moment of weakness was interrupted by the Scottish accent of Total, my new favorite animal on the planet.

"Quit locking lips and come in here to celebrate!"

We laughed, me biting my lip and him smiling mischievously at me.

"Kids these days and their strange ways of showing affections," he muttered, almost purposely loud enough for us to hear, yet quiet enough for us not to take offense or snap back with a comment about his love life. So we strolled into the house, greeted by the aroma of chocolate chip cookies and some kind of cake being made. Surprisingly enough, Dylan was in the kitchen. Without Maya, I might add. And he caught my glance as I entered the social scene. He and I hadn't talked much. We had lived together for almost five years, yet we had barely had a conversation. To be honest, it still freaked me out that Maya was originally intended to be me. Or, a copy of me, at least. She'd changed her hair, and we have totally different styles, but she still resembled me and she always would. And the fact that Dylan was made to be my perfect other half was a little weird. I mean, how did he manage to avert those feelings towards Maya? It was just the tragic irony of the whole situation that tended to throw me off sometimes. But I still walked over to him with a friendly expression.

"What's up?"

"I'm happy for you. Really, I am," he replied almost instantly, but not in a suspicious manner. He actually sounded fairly sincere. I would have questioned where such a statement came from if I wouldn't have noticed the kitchen window overlooking the field that Fang and I had just been making out in.

"Thanks. I'm happy for you, too. You guys are kind of perfect for each other."

"Well, in a complicated sense, we were made for each other, were we not? We didn't end up being the people that some mad scientist had intended us to be, but we were brought together kind of like destiny."

"Yeah. Funny how life works sometimes," I said as I gazed off into the living room. I watched Iggy and Ella canoodle on the couch, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I guess it's not really that insane after all, huh?"

"As long as they're happy, there's no reason for them not to be together."

"You're exactly right," I tapped his shoulder upon exiting the room one after the other.

We entered into a room of smiling faces and positive energies. Dylan took a seat beside Maya as I scanned the room for Fang. There was so many of us here that it actually took a little bit of effort to find him. He took a deep breath that caught my attention and appeared in the corner. He smiled in my direction and gave me a look. Not a signature Fang look. It was something much different. More mature and more powerful than any other look I'd received from him before. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was trying to tell me. But all he did was smile and shake his hair a little. I've never liked the feeling of being unsure, but it was the most excitement I'd received in a while. The mystery of trying to figure something out. Some secret that could be insignificant or life changing. I looked around the room at my Flock, which really was everybody. The original Flock, Fang's Gang, Total's family, everybody. We all were brought together by some kind of destiny other people had planned for us. We ended up going in our own directions, and we still ended up together. On that note, I guess I believe in fate, not destiny. It must have been fate that we'd all end up here together after the world had been saved and our hearts had been fulfilled with some sort of youthful romance. I looked back at Fang, realizing that he was my fate. Maybe I wasn't destined to be with him, but I want to be, and I will be, and I know that now as I look at him across the room. I fell in love with him, he broke my heart, and now I'm going to turn twenty with him. And that's all the adventure I need in my lifetime. Nothing more and nothing less. Just my Flock, and of course, Fang.


End file.
